Send Your Music to a Record Label: Protect Your Work Before You Hit Send

The Real Risk When You Send Your Music to a Record Label

A label can receive dozens, sometimes hundreds, of demos every week. Once you send your file, it can travel well beyond the person you sent it to:

• label contact → internal A&R;
• A&R → an outside producer for feedback;
• producer → another artist on the same roster;
• label → a distribution or sync partner.

None of this is necessarily malicious — it's simply how teams work. But without any proof of what you owned before that submission, a later dispute (authorship, an idea reused, an uncredited sample) becomes very hard to document.

The real question isn't just "how do I send my music to a label," but "how do I send it while keeping proof of what I created".

Protect Your Music Before Sending It to a Label — The Checklist

Before writing the email itself, follow this order:

1. Finish the exact version you plan to send — never send an unstable working file.
2. Identify every co-creator (writer, composer, performer, producer) and their role.
3. Deposit that exact version on TuneLockr before sending — fingerprint, timestamp and certificate tied to the precise file you're about to share.
4. Prepare a private listening link instead of a large attachment.
5. Send it to a targeted contact, not a generic inbox found at random.
6. Keep a record of the date sent, the recipient and the exact version shared.

Finish → document → send → track.

Targeting and Pitching Labels: Not TuneLockr's Job

TuneLockr protects your work — it doesn't decide which label to approach, doesn't write your outreach email, and doesn't maintain a list of labels matched to your genre.

For that part (which label to target, how to build an EPK, what to write, how to follow up), the most complete resource in the ecosystem is Beathoven's guide, which walks through targeting, press-kit preparation and outreach step by step.

How to Structure Your Send Once the Music Is Protected

Once the deposit is done, a professional submission comes down to four elements:

• A clear subject line — artist name and track title, not something vague.
• A short message — who you are, why this label, a listening link.
• A private link rather than a heavy attachment.
• One follow-up after 2-3 weeks of silence, not more.

Beathoven offers ready-to-use email templates (FR) and a list of labels by genre (FR) if you haven't identified who to contact yet.

Special Case: A Feature or Distinctive Voice on the Track

If the song you're sending includes a featured vocalist, a topliner, or a performance with a distinctive voice, a second risk applies on top of the track itself: the voice being reused, imitated or AI-cloned without authorization.

TuneLockr protects the musical work. To specifically document a voice reference (useful in case of vocal cloning or unauthorized voice use), that's VoiceLockr's role.

What to Do After You've Sent It

No quick response is not a rejection — label teams often handle a high volume of submissions. Still, keep these habits:

• note the date and exact content of every submission;
• never promise exclusivity to several labels at once without saying so;
• if unauthorized use of your track surfaces later, your TuneLockr certificate is proof of the version and date that existed before you sent it.

To go further on detecting unauthorized use, see Music Plagiarism: How to Detect, Prove and Respond.

FAQ — Sending Your Music to a Record Label